My First Sunday at Your Church

I wanted to share this great article from ChristianityToday about looking at your church through the eyes of a visitor.

Here are the key points:

1. Develop a greeting ministry with the visitor, not the greeter, in mind. Don't just greet visitors, but seek them out and assist them with feeling connected to the church.

2. Choose hospitality over visitation. When following up with visitors, don't invite yourself to their homes, but instead open up your home to visitors.

3. Recognize Sunday school as an initial contact point. Often a visitor's first experience with a new church is dropping a child off at Sunday school (and I would include the nursery). Make sure these contact points are very welcoming to visitors. Like it or not, the first impression of your church may be made based on Sunday school and the nursery.

4. Become visitors for a day. Visit other churches where no one knows you. Make a note of what that church does well and doesn't do well.